Cougars host Tulane tonight: Not all wins created equal

The Houston Cougars were happy to get a home win over SMU on Saturday, a 62-59 victory at Hofheinz Pavilion that marked Houston’s second win in three games.

But that’s just about all coach James Dickey and his staff were happy with in the aftermath. And that’s the message the coaches have tried to deliver to the players this week, leading up to tonight’s game against Tulane at 7 p.m. at Hofheinz Pavilion, Houston’s home finale.

“I didn’t feel like we played very well against SMU,” Dickey said. “I thought we were very fortunate to win the game. When I looked at the execution, there were several times that we had an eight-point lead, a nine-point lead and never could get it into double figures which is a big psychological advantage. Then at the end with four minutes to go…we’re up eight and before we could get anything else going (offensively) and all of a sudden it was a two-point game.

“I didn’t feel like we played as well as we’re capable of playing. I thought we should have had a double-digit victory or more and we had to go to the last second.”

UH senior Darian Thibodeaux will be honored before tonight's home finale at Hofheinz (Brett Coomer/Chronicle)

Turnovers, defensive breakdowns, poor offensive execution — those all played a role in Houston’s lead narrowing against the Mustangs. Despite that, Houston (13-14, 5-9 Conference USA) was able to hold on for the win.

Dickey knows the Cougars will have to play better to notch a win tonight against the Green Wave (15-13, 3-11 C-USA), who pounded the Cougars 75-54 on Feb. 4 in New Orleans. It was the largest margin of victory in conference play for the Green Wave in nearly five years.

A win tonight for Houston would guarantee that the Cougars are no lower than the No. 9 seed when the C-USA Tournament begins on March 7.

Tulane comes to town with the conference’s top freshman in tow, guard Ricky Tarrant. The 6-1 Tarrant is averaging 19.6 points per game in C-USA games only, which is tops among all players in the league (he’s averaging 15.7 points per game overall for the season, good for fifth in the league). In New Orleans, Tarrant scored a game-high 21 points against the Cougars and had five steals.

“The thing that’s been impressive about him is his consistency,” Dickey said. “He’s done it against everybody. He’s a very good player on both ends of the court. He really has a great command of the offense, handles the ball extremely well as well as scores.”

The Cougars allowed Tulane to shoot 50 percent for the game, including 58.6 percent in the first half (17-of-29), which helped the Green Wave take a 12-point halftime lead.

“We’ve got to guard the ball screens better,” Dickey said. “We’ve got to be tougher on both ends of the floor. They were good and they executed well at home but we were a little soft defensively.”

Dickey is hopeful that the Cougars play better tonight.

“I want the guys to understand that you’ve got to execute whether you play Southern Miss or whoever you’re playing and do it with a sense of urgency and toughness,” Dickey said. “And I didn’t want them to think that we were happy at all with our performance (against SMU) other than the fact that we won the game.”

• • •

With tonight being the final home game of the season, it’s senior night. That means Houston’s lone senior, Darian Thibodeaux, will be honored before the game.

I chatted with Thibodeaux, who has had a rough senior season, to get perspective from him on what the experience has been like. You can check it out in today’s UH notebook.